168 Ind. 539 | Ind. | 1907
Appellant, as coroner of Allen county, filed, in the form of an itemized bill, before the board of commissioners of said county, a statement of his own fees, and of the claims of other officers and persons, in and about the holding of an inquest and post-mortem. The bill aggregated $43.50. The commissioners disallowed it, and appellant appealed. In the court below appellee filed a general denial and a special answer. Appellant, after unsuccessfully demurring to the latter answer, filed a reply thereto, and the cause was submitted to the court for trial without the intervention of a jury. The trial resulted in a finding and judgment for appellee, and from such judgment appellant appeals, assigning as error that the court below erred in overruling said demurrer, and in overruling his motion for a new trial.
It is stated in the points in appellant’s brief that the coroner acts judicially in holding an inquest, and that, having held an inquest upon the body of a person found dead within his county, his action, being of a judicial character, cannot be reviewed, and therefore he is entitled to his fees. It is further contended in appellant’s behalf that under the statute the discretion is vested in the coroner of determining whether an inquest shall he held. We are of opinion that counsel are in error in their contention that the coroner acts judicially in holding an inquest. Judicial power is vested in the courts. It cannot, under the framework of the state government, reside elsewhere. Branson v. Studabaker (1892), 133 Ind. 147; State, ex rel., v. Noble (1889), 118 Ind. 350, 4 L. R. A. 101, 10 Am. St. 143. An inquest is a mere finding, and does not establish rights, and therefore the authority lacks the first element of judicial power. The coroner stands as an ordinary ministerial officer in respect to his claims for allowances.
The supposition of death by violence or casualty, to which the statute refers, is undoubtedly the coroner’s, and we think that he should hold an inquest where there is reasonable ground to suspect that death was so caused; but he must form his judgment upon the facts, and if the circumstances immediately accessible are such as would have disclosed that there was no reasonable basis for the suspicion, he cannot recover fees, where it turns out that death resulted from a natural cause. It was said by Lord Den-man, in a case which arose under the English statute: “The mere fact of a body’s lying dead does not give the coroner jurisdiction, nor even the circumstances that the death was sudden; there ought to be a reasonable suspicion that the party came to his death by violent or unnatural means. 1 East, Pleas of the Crown, 382, citing 3 MS. cases. And see, also, Rex v. Justices of Kent [1809], 1 East 229, and Rex v. Justices of Norfolk [1792], Nolan 141, which is one of the cases cited in 1 East, Pleas of the Crown, 382,. The coroner must therefore, before he summons a jury, make some inquiry; and, if on that inquiry he finds that the circumstances which occasioned the death happened out of his jurisdiction, and that there is no reasonable sus
Wc have both read .and carefully abstracted the testimony in. this case, as it is set forth in the bill of exceptions, and so > nr as we can perceive the finding of the court may have proceeded upon the theory (without any misapprehension as to the meaning of the statute, as we have construed it) that the facts were such that appellant, who was apprised of the general external circumstances, so far as
Judgment affirmed.